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Wednesday, October 19, 2005

I got a lovely newsletter from BHG which had this recipe for an Apple Pie with maple...I love maple so I thought I would give it a try, and it was scrumpdilliumptious! I put a link to the original recipe, but just in case they delete it, I am reproducing it here. Bon Apetit! Here are the Ingredients:

Prepare and roll out pastry for double-crust pie. Line a 9-inch pie plate with half of the pastry. Set aside.

For filling, in a large bowl, stir together the 1/3 cup sugar, the cornstarch, and the salt. Add the apples and gently toss until coated.

In a small bowl, stir together maple syrup, whipping cream, and vanilla. Pour over apple mixture. Fold until combined. Transfer to the pastry-lined pie plate. Trim pastry to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pie plate.

Roll out remaining pastry and cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips. (Or roll out second portion of pastry to form a top crust; cut slits.) Weave strips over filling for lattice crust. Press ends of strips into crust rim. Fold bottom pastry over strips; seal and crimp edge. Brush pastry with milk and sprinkle with sugar. To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil. If you like, place the pie on a baking sheet to catch drips.

Bake the pie in a 375 degree F oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil. Bake the pie for about 30 minutes more or until the top is golden. Serve warm or cool. Makes 8 servings.Note: To make pastry cutouts on top of pie, roll out pastry scraps about 1/8 inch thick and use small cutters to form leaf shapes. Moisten with water and place atop unbaked crust.

Pastry for Double-Crust Pie:(If you have never made pie crust yourself, here is a basic recipe...remember the trick to a flakey crust is not to overwork your pastry...this isn't bread, the less you mess the better! I learned how to make a pie crust in my 8th grade home economics class and I must admit, it was certainly one of the more useful things I learned in school! RH)

In a mixing bowl, stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in 2/3 cup shortening until pieces are peasize.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cold water over part of the mixture; gently toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to the side of the bowl. Repeat moistening dough, using 1 tablespoon cold water at a time, until all the dough is moistened (6 to 7 tablespoons cold water total).

Divide dough in half. Form each half into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, use your hands to slightly flatten 1 dough ball. Roll dough from center to edge into a circle about 12 inches in diameter.

To transfer pastry, wrap it around the rolling pin. Unroll pastry into a 9-inch pie plate. Ease pastry into pie plate, being careful not to stretch pastry. Continue as directed above.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

I found this to be a humorous read! Old wives tales indeed! I do take issue with the entry about hair, and whether it grows in darker and thicker when you shave it! I personally have seen several cases where this has been the case, and the poor dears who attempted to avoid a proper waxing have now found themselves with proper mustaches, a la Groucho Marx. It is a fairly certain way to simply destroy your social calendar, as it is difficult to keep engagements whilst one is hiding in a dark cave.

Beware girls! Do not be tempted by your husband's razor! Instead, endure a few stings at the salon and enjoy your luncheons.

Well, I hate to keep harping on this whole, maybe we shouldn't be drugging our kids to keep them quiet thing, but I'll be gosh darned if another "event" didn't just get my panties all in a bunch again.

This time it involved my dear, long time friend Gwendolyn, and her quest to enroll her 2 year old son in one of those "statistically proven to help your child do better in school" preschools, in that liberal landmark of the left, the ever so politically correct (BART here!!??) enclave of Marin. (One just pictures the children skipping around amongst butterflies, not hurting anyone's feelings, and under absolutely no circumstances, playing ANY game to win.)

It seems, however, that pre-schools are now big business, not to mention exclusive, and one can't simply pop in with your child under your arm, scrawl your name on a form, hand them your dear child and run out the door before they notice that you wrote "Martha Stewart" on the intake. Noooooooo. There are appointments, and interviews and evaluations where both you and your child are evaluated on your fitness to attend preschool.

It was during one of these "evaluations" that the event in question occured. As Gwendolyn told it, she was sitting there listening attetively to the preschool teacher extol the virtues of their "Program", when the teacher lowered her voice a notch and said in one of those conspiritorial tones, "Of course, I have to tell you that some of the boys have had disciplinary problems, and had to be medicated so that they could continue to participate in the curriculum". She then went on to explain that the disciplinary problems involved not sitting still nicely, instead choosing to run around and disturbing the girls in their reading efforts. Mind you, we are talking about 2 to 4 year olds here, (whose parents obviously place a lot of value on being able to read at a very young age).

Now I grew up one of three sisters, and granted I spent at least a good 10 years convinced that the so called "differences" between boys and girls were merely the product of the white male opression of just about anything that moved and was not white and male. Girls only liked to play with dolls because their foolish parents stereotyped them at an early age, and boys would be just as happy with the same said doll as their sisters. That's what I thought, at least, until I had a son. From then on, all bets were off and I was faced with a small bundle of energy that never seemed to tire of running, jumping, climbing and generally making a racket. Not that my daughter is any shrinking violet, she just doesn't seem to have the inclination to try and hit the 15ft high ceiling with my excersise ball over, and over and over.

And let me dispell any armchair diagnoses that perhaps there is some hyperactivity going on here. In fact, when my son's friends come over, if the ball is in view (and I am not), it will invariablly get a kick, or at least an energetic toss heavenwards. It is, I learned, the nature of the beast, and in fact perfectly normal and desireable.

But Wait! Wasn't it just such similar behavior that was the reason for the little preschooler's precocious sponsoring of the pharmaceutical companies? Such behavior is considered "disruptive" up in Marin Preschools. In fact, an elementary school principal did actually suggest that I take MY son to the "Therapist" and seek some calming remedy in pill form after he and another boy had gotten into a pushing fight in the school lunch line. And it seems, the more often I tell that story, the more often I hear similar tales from other parents.

Somehow, the combination of the feminist Movement, political correctness, increasing violence in schools, an increasingly female school staff and a general acceptance that it is OK to trash the white male and blame him for just about anything has produced the general notion that normal male behavior is aberrant, undesireable and unhealthy and needs to be treated as any illness would be.